- "Navigating the News" by Denise Koray, American Libraries, Nov. 2013
- "Not Just Literate, But Transliterate: Encouraging Transliteracy Adoption In Library Services" by Nancy Trimm, Colorado Libraries, Oct. 2011
- "Fabricating a Fabulous Home for Cocreation" by Lauren Britton and Sue Considine, Library Journal, Oct. 2012
Though I started my search intending to find one article each about information literacy, information fluency, and transliteracy, I ended up with two articles about transliteracy and one about information literacy.
I'll discuss first the Koray article, which concerned information literacy; more specifically, it was about high-school students learning about media literacy through analyzing the truthfulness of various news media sources. I don't think that news media is the first thing to come to mind when we discuss information literacy. After all, newspapers and television news have been around for a long time, and information literacy is an idea that I usually associate with online databases or the Web in general. However, librarian Erik Berman points out in the article that the lessons students learn from studying news media tie in with information literacy as a whole. "The role of libraries in the digital future is not just finding information," he says, "but how to know in a limited time if you can trust a source and know that the information you are receiving is credible." This is an important skill for library patrons (and librarians) to learn as more and more information exists outside of sources vetted by librarians, publishers, or vendors. Teaching information literacy of this kind empowers patrons to look for information on their own - because a lot of what's out there on the internet is worth investigating - while being confident in their ability to tell the good from the bad.
The remaining two articles concerned transliteracy, the first as an overview of developing and teaching transliteracy in a library environment and the second related to transliteracy as embodied in one particular makerspace. From these articles, it is apparent to me that transliteracy is more important now than it ever has been, but that American culture, especially, increasingly takes it for granted. I think that transliteracy is inherent in the concept of "digital natives," those of us who grew up using computers and who adapt more easily to new technologies and tech-centered culture. The problem is that people are expected to be comfortable in a digital environment when they have not yet developed the skills and understanding necessary. Such cases illustrate the need for libraries, which in theory are safe and educational spaces, to teach transliteracy skills to ensure that people not only catch up with current technology, but are ready for the next thing when it comes.
The Britton and Considine article is an example of that sort of teaching in a less digital-specific context. Though the particular makerspace in this article uses digital fabrication (a 3D printer), the article stresses that book-making, robot-building, and similar activities also teach similar skills. According to the article, the Fab Lab caused some growing pains in the library and its community as people adjusted to the necessity of learning transliteracy skills, but it has been a success overall. In a digital world, creativity and exploration are important, and a makerspace like the Fab Lab is a great way to instill those values in the community.
K
I appreciated your discussion of the Koray article, especially in light of our last class. I think it's important for students to learn how to critique information that is coming from "good" sources, like news media, because in all likelihood, it makes them more suspicious (in a good way) of all the news they read. I think that most digital natives know that just because it's on the internet does not mean it's true, but oftentimes they (and we) can use some help in fine tuning how we distinguish between credible and noncredible.
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